Piers Morgan sparks fury after Chris Hoy anthem jibe on Twitter

Morgan said he was “disappointed” that the Scots cycling champ – who became the most successful British Olympian of all time yesterday – didn’t sing God Save The Queen as he collected his sixth gold medal, calling his behaviour “a bit off”.

The former Daily Mirror editor was branded a “pompous fool” and a “grumpy old man,” by fans of 36-year-old Hoy, who took to Twitter to slate Morgan for his controversial comments.

Piers Morgan said Chris Hoy was “a bit off” for not singing God Save The Queen.

The row erupted yesterday evening, when Morgan, (47), tweeted to his 2.5million followers: “Very happy for Sir Chris Hoy that he won another Gold. But disappointed he didn’t sing the anthem. He accepted a Knighthood, after all.

Minutes later he continued to moan: “Sir Chris hasn’t sung the anthem all Olympics. It’s not emotion stopping him. He just doesn’t want to. Which for a Knight is a bit off

His outspoken comments were met by fury by some of his Twitter followers, with Darrell Brady, writing: “Does it matter? He’s obviously immensely proud, as should you be, stop finding fault where there is none you pompous fool.”

Nikki Scrivener also took offense, tweeting the journalist: “It’s not a case of being anti-anthem. We just have no right to judge people on whether or not they sing it.”

Ted Mosby said: “If you are so patriotic, then why did you leave England and move to America? Hypocrisy at its utmost.”

Danielle Blange added: “Bore off you grumpy old man!”

Abuse

Following the barrage of abuse, Morgan defended his earlier tweets, writing: “I love the Scots, Welsh, English and N-Irish. But sorry, when you play for Great Britain, you sing the damn GB anthem – which is GSTQ. End.

“I’m not ‘slagging off’ Chris Hoy. He’s a genius cyclist and a great guy. I just wish he’d sing the national anthem, that’s all.”

Sir Chris Hoy, from Edinburgh, has chosen not to react to Piers Morgan’s comments, instead tweeting his support for the “phenomenal” Team GB and posting a photo of a Royal Mail post box that was painted gold in his honour.

Scottish Conservative constitution spokesman and Lothians MSP David McLetchie said Piers Morgan was an attention seeker.

He said: “Sir Chris Hoy was the flag bearer for Team GB – his patriotism is not in doubt.

“This is an insulting cheap shot from a pathetic attention seeker.”

Laughable

Sandy Howat, SNP councillor for Meadows / Morningside, where Chris Hoy went to school, said Piers Morgan’s comments were “laughable”.

He said: “Piers Morgan is making a laughable attempt at self-publicity.

“Chris Hoy is an outstanding Olympian and we should be very proud of him. I wonder if the same question would have been asked if Chris Hoy was English?

“He is a great athlete and seemed to be trying very hard to compose himself on the winner’s podium, I doubt he could have sung the national anthem if he wanted to.

“Chris has done Edinburgh proud.”

Earlier on this week Morgan vowed he would donate £1,000 to charity each time an Olympic athlete sang the national anthem, “I’ll donate £1,000 to @GreatOrmondSt for each #TeamGB gold-winning athlete who sings GSTQ,” he wrote.

21 COMMENTS

Piers Morgan is absolutely right – the athletes were competing for Great Britain, so why not sing our National Anthem? We expect the thick footballers not to know the words, but most of the athletes are pretty savvy and should know the words. They only play the first verse, after all.

“We expect the thick footballers not to know the words, but most of the athletes are pretty savvy and should know the words.”
Yeah, many of the athletes are also Scottish, N. Irish and Welsh and therefore probably wouldn’t know the words to GSTQ (universally recognized as the ENGLISH national anthem, despite their attempts to deny it) and shouldn’t have to learn the words, in my opinion. I bet a lot of them consider themselves to be Welsh, N. Irish and Scottish before they are British and would be criticized by their country if they didn’t – they’re damned if they do and they’re damned if they don’t. I think Piers Morgan is a pretentious, obnoxious old fool who is pulling the whole “£1000 for GOSH” lark for attention and publicity. It’s disgusting and I don’t know how anyone could possibly think that what he is doing is right.

Helen the reason people don’t sing it, is because its really the English national anthem which has been defaulted to the British national anthem. The Scots have not forgotten the now censored verse that refers to “crushing rebellious Scots”. I highly doubt anyone in England would sing along to a song that referred to crushing the English. Whether the verse is still there or not. Also, this isn’t communist China or North Korea. It’s a democracy, if we don’t want to sing that rubbish, we wont

how was it not emotion that stopped him singing?? chris hoy was trying very hard, and failing somewhat, not to turn into a blubbering wreck. give the guy a break. and these folk that think the scottish don’t sing GSTQ cos it’s not their anthem, are wrong. scotland has NO official anthem, neither does england. check your facts, which i’m guessing morgan has not done… so he can’t say it’s cos he’s scottish that he didn’t sing it. plus, he’s not the only GB athlete not singing. he’s donating £1000 every time someone sings it, why is he complaining if they don’t? surely he doesn’t have that much money to splash about!!
these athletes have at least made our nation as a whole, proud. what has morgan ever done to make us proud?!

Piers Morgan makes me sick, a pathetic attempt to suck up to the queen, bit of self-publicity at the the expense of people who have been training for 4 years for their moment, and to top it off, he is using the sick children in Great Ormond Street as a blackmailing tool- what a classy guy

Piers Morgan is a toffee nosed twit who represents everything that’s NOT great about GB. We sing the national anthem every day in our house ’cause we’re so proud to be British and love the Royal Family. If a Scotsman wins a medal they should play the Scottish national anthem. Shove off Piers, you are the most annoying, ignorant, shameless media type sensationalist there is.

What I can’t understand is why Team GB even exists. Funny how in the Commonwealth Games, England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales will compete individually when the competition isn’t that tough. Yet when the time comes to compete against the rest of the world, they combine the 4 countries and become Team GB!

Helen Piper. Has it not occurred to you that some Olympic athletes might actually be smart enough NOT to believe in a god who helps them win medals but is unwilling or incapable of feeding the thousands of children who will starve to death during the course of these games?

It is ironic that a character such as Piers Morgan’s with his shady, gutter-press background is attempting to assert some kind of moral high ground here. Chris Hoy and Bradley Wiggins have done more for Great Britain and Sport than Piers Morgan could ever hope to achieve. They represent their country, but Morgan only represents himself. His comments belong in the gutter.

If he doesn’t want to sing the anthem fine, but then don’t take a knighthood from the Queen if you’re not going to sing her anthem, especially when the state you’re representing has funded your success.

I agree with Piers . Its about GB. We have a Queen. Its an anthem to be proud of . Muteness looked just disrespectful.. They would have something to say if they played a different countries anthem ! I’d bet!

The reason many foreigners and working class people don’t sing the Natoinal anthem is because it is not the National anthem. It is the Queen’s anthem, and represents the elite, classist and racist establishment which still harks back to the colonial and slave owning days. There are many people who wish not to grovel to the racist, classist, nationalistic establishment.

Putting aside feelings about Peers’ own character, I think Peers may have a point. It is complicated. Athletes represent their country and the country pay them, They take the Queen’s shilling or more correctly, our thousands of pounds, in the name of the country. Then the athletes do very well out of it creating wealth for themselves for the foreseeable future. In return should there should be some sgn of respect such as actually bowing to the queen when she bestows a knighthood? Assuming it is accepted. If the athletes donot want to buy into this because they do not believe in God or the soverignty of the Queen or loyalty to the country then should they take the shilling? Hamilton was villified for his forsaking the country that he represented because of various reasons but he was paid and supported from commercial venture independent of state. It raises the whole question of should the public pay for sportsmen and women to pursue their careers? Some would say no but let the comercial interest do that such as we see in football. I was reading an account of the 1983 BCF council meeting and the members there voted against commercial interference but we have moved on and look how Sky have now become so deeply involved in BC. So if Peers has raised the question lets see it as being just that. Not an attack on anyone, just putting this into the public arena, getting us thinking about it. Should we be supporting th athletes without demanding anything back? Is the GSTQ now outdated? Should we go down the road of so ,many local authorities who remove all religeous content from their town halls on the strength of it not being PC? That being said has Peers let his own philosophy creep into his public criticism of a more highly prized public figure?